Level crossing stupidity...

[Wickham Green too]

10 hours ago, lmsforever said:

...  the drivers should be put away for a long time make them suffer.

I suspect the death of his passenger might be a greater cause of suffering than the thought of a jail term.

[Fishoutofwater]

14 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

I suspect the death of his passenger might be a greater cause of suffering than the thought of a jail term.

Such persons seem to have scant regard for anything except their own personal glee and euphoria.

[boxbrownie]

Mrs BB mentioned yesterday the driver has lost a leg apparently.

 

Lets just hope he will be thinking long and hard about his actions.

[Titan]

15 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

And a cliff edge…….

 

Nope, on level ground.  Even the first diesel version introduced circa 1986 broke diesel speed records, notably averaging over 100mph for 24 hours straight.

[boxbrownie]

1 minute ago, Titan said:

 

Nope, on level ground.  Even the first diesel version introduced circa 1986 broke diesel speed records, notably averaging over 100mph for 24 hours straight.

No, go on…..laugh a bit, a little smile then? 😉

[boxbrownie]

2 minutes ago, Titan said:

 

averaging over 100mph for 24 hours straight.

😮 with the same engine?

 

🤣

[Titan]

3 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

😮 with the same engine?

 

🤣

 

Indeed, a completely standard production engine  - but they did do refueling on the move. 

 

Range Rover project Bullet

 

 

[kevinlms]

15 hours ago, Hobby said:

At least it's still in the UK!

Plenty of discussion of that track down the road in the US.

[johnofwessex]

The obvious difficulty that tram/trolley bus/railways have is that hey have to a greater or lesser extent to maintain their own infrastructure in a way that that other road users dont.

 

Secondly you can buy buses 'off the peg' so to speak when trams & trolleybuses are as far as I can make out 'bespoke'

 

What I suggest we want is something like the situation you had with the 'pre privatisation' BR where you have a plant turning out trams/trolleybuses/trains and operators then having a rolling programme of fleet replacement eg Birmingham, its your turn for new trams this year, Cardiff, its your turn for new trolleybuses.

[johnofwessex]

The question I suggest that the London incident raises is abut the sort of vehicles we allow on our roads, in particular the maximum permitted speed and acceleration

[johnofwessex]

On 23/08/2022 at 23:55, melmerby said:

Rather OT but on Snapped and Trapped on BBC1 today there was a reckless motorcyclist who when stopped by the police for doing a wheelie on a busy road, sped off at incredible high speeds.

The police gave chase but gave up due to the high speeds.

The biker had obscured his numberplate and was filming from a helmet cam so presumably he could post his exploits on You Tube or such.

He was doing 80+ in a 20mph zone and 111 shortly afterwards.

Unfortunately for him he had already been snapped on a ANPR camera before obscuring his plate and the cops quickly caught up with him at home, complete with his camera footage.

The sentence IIRC was 8 weeks in jail suspended, a driving ban and some unpaid work. All rather lenient I thought.

They should've crushed his bike as well as some proper time in nick.

 

There are moves to make dangerous driving equivalent to murder and careless driving equivalent to manslaughter where a death is caused, not before time IMHO

 

 

Exactly, do what you would do if he had a gun, simples

[Wickham Green too]

11 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

The question I suggest that the London incident raises is about the sort of vehicles we allow on our roads, in particular the maximum permitted speed and acceleration

Trouble is, the owner can always ( currently ) argue that he wants to use his vehicle on the German Autobahn - parts of which still have no speed limit. The cost of fuel used by a Range Rover at speed doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent so differential taxation would be no use !

[johnofwessex]

Just now, Wickham Green too said:

Trouble is, the owner can always ( currently ) argue that he wants to use his vehicle on the German Autobahn - parts of which still have no speed limit. The cost of fuel used by a Range Rover at speed doesn't seem to be much of a deterrent so differential taxation would be no use !

 

Nothing to stop him (not often a her) its simply that they cant use it in the UK.  I suggest an absolute maximum limit of 85mph to allow for higher speeds permitted abroad

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

Mrs BB mentioned yesterday the driver has lost a leg apparently.

 

Lets just hope he will be thinking long and hard about his actions.

 

A pity he didn't lose that too. A candidate for the Darwin Awards if ever there was one!

 

[PhilJ W]

58 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

The obvious difficulty that tram/trolley bus/railways have is that hey have to a greater or lesser extent to maintain their own infrastructure in a way that that other road users dont.

 

Secondly you can buy buses 'off the peg' so to speak when trams & trolleybuses are as far as I can make out 'bespoke'

 

What I suggest we want is something like the situation you had with the 'pre privatisation' BR where you have a plant turning out trams/trolleybuses/trains and operators then having a rolling programme of fleet replacement eg Birmingham, its your turn for new trams this year, Cardiff, its your turn for new trolleybuses.

Large cities such as London and Birmingham could easily afford bespoke trams and buses because of the sheer numbers required. When it comes to smaller operators the products of Dick Keir (later English Electric) were quite often the choice, almost a standard British tram. When it comes to trolleybuses from about the late 20's they became an electric bus rather than a trackless tram. Most trolleybuses from about 1930 were the electric versions of the equivalent motor bus. This continued after the war, though the manufacturers used different makers names, BUT was an electric version of the AEC Regent and Sunbeam was based on the Guy Arab. It was London Transports decision to replace the trams south of the River Thames with motor buses that spelt the end of the trolleybus and most of the remaining tram systems. 

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Most trolleybuses from about 1930 were the electric versions of the equivalent motor bus.

Indeed

The Birmingham fleet of TBD1 Leylands resulted from an approach by BCT to GEC Witton to replace the petrol engine with an electric motor in a standard bus.

The prototype used was a Leyland TD1 (OV1175) fitted with a GEC 65hp motor in 1931. It was numbered 19 in BCT's fleet and was tested successfully along the Nechells route.

Leyland saw this as an ideal opportunity to attack the trolleybus market dominated by AEC and duly marketed this version as their TBD1 trolleybus, with BCT the first customer.

Apart from the apparatus for current collection on the roof, they looked just like a standard "piano" front bus of the period and they retained their normal (but unused on a trolleybus) Leyland radiator.

 

A BCT Leyland TBD1:

 

 

One of the TBD1s was supposedly back converted to a TD1 after it left BCT's fleet.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2022 by melmerby

[johnofwessex]

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

A pity he didn't lose that too. A candidate for the Darwin Awards if ever there was one!

 

 

A rather charming man from Hull lost something more important in a car crash.........

[stewartingram]

5 hours ago, johnofwessex said:

The obvious difficulty that tram/trolley bus/railways have is that they have to a greater or lesser extent to maintain their own infrastructure in a way that that other road users don't.

 

Secondly you can buy buses 'off the peg' so to speak when trams & trolleybuses are as far as I can make out 'bespoke'

 

What I suggest we want is something like the situation you had with the 'pre privatisation' BR where you have a plant turning out trams/trolleybuses/trains and operators then having a rolling programme of fleet replacement eg Birmingham, its your turn for new trams this year, Cardiff, its your turn for new trolleybuses.

I remember, way back when in BR days, the argument that railways should be put 'on a level field' with roads, in that the infrastructure should be separate from the operation (!). Supposedly that would make the railways more cost efficient, so that the 'expensive' roads system would be held more responsible for their costs.

Eventually, what did we get? Privatisation - with infrastructure and operation separated! This was a lot later on, and not once have I heard the previous argument mentioned since then. In fact, we seem to be heading back to the combined system again...

It's a strange old world we live in.

 

[Derekl]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

BUT was an electric version of the AEC Regent and Sunbeam was based on the Guy Arab.

Sorry, but no, this isn't right - I drove BUTs (early ones similar to those used in London, and later larger vehicles), Sunbeams and Regent Mk5s in Johannesburg, South Africa. I missed out on the Guy Arab. There was simply no relation between either BUT and the Regent Mk5. The Mk5 had a diesel engine in front, driving (in our case) through a semi-automatic gearbox and a propeller shaft to a diff on a single rear axle.

The BUTs had no engine in front, a full width cab with various electrical control gubbins in cabinets on the rear wall and a circuit breaker above the driver's seat. Below the floor were first the resistance mats to shunt current on start and acceleration, followed by the motor driving a prop shaft a short distance to the diff on the first axle. A second axle hung on behind. These buses were noticeable heavier than the Mk5s (by some way) and I cannot see that any of the Mk5 chassis could be used, although I expect there were some common parts. Note the capacity of both BUTs was well in excess of a Mk5, although I cannot remember the numbers at this distance.

As I said, I had not driven a Guy Arab, but I have seen pictures, and it bears no relation to the Sunbeams I drove - these were big powerful buses (also twin rear axle) with delightful power steering and a passenger capacity of 106 (including standing).

We also had Guy diesel buses with 6 wheel chassis and a Rolls Royce engine. They were close to the Sunbeams in size and I have no doubt there were common components, but the underfloor layout is so far different and the weight substantially so that I cannot see that there would be more than that.

[PhilJ W]

The smaller four wheel trolleybuses were based on the diesel equivalents. The larger six wheel trolleybuses were derived from the pre-war six wheel motorbuses, AEC Renown and Leyland Titanic for instance. The trolleybus motors were a lot smaller than the equivalent power diesel engine, about the same size as the gearbox of a diesel bus so they were placed under the floor in the space normally occupied by the gearbox. The reason for the larger six wheel trolleybuses continuing to be built was the need for a large seating capacity. Most trolleybuses in the UK replaced trams, often with seating for seventy or more passengers and they replaced trams on a one for one basis. The BUT 9611T shared the same chassis frame, front axle and steering of the AEC Regent V plus many other components.

[kevinlms]

On 24/08/2022 at 20:25, Wickham Green too said:

Why should it ? ......... it's not there to be taken away for the next offence !

Here's a text book example. Why does it never seem to occur to them, that the police just might be watching them?

https://www.theage.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-man-s-u-turn-straight-back-to-court-ends-with-130-000-landcruiser-impounded-20220826-p5bd0o.html?dicbo=v2-c6a726bebc3c59a3c981b27cafa8c84a

[Grovenor]

So you can expect him to turn up at the pound in 28 days to drive away when the car is released. Should have impounded the car for the same period as his suspension. (I assume a substantial storage fee!).

[62613]

16 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Here's a text book example. Why does it never seem to occur to them, that the police just might be watching them?

https://www.theage.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-man-s-u-turn-straight-back-to-court-ends-with-130-000-landcruiser-impounded-20220826-p5bd0o.html?dicbo=v2-c6a726bebc3c59a3c981b27cafa8c84a

I can feel myself coming over all Captain Mainwaring!

[Wickham Green too]

2 hours ago, Grovenor said:

... Should have impounded the car for the same period as his suspension ...

Or crushed it for the same period ......................... wot you mean, you want it uncrushed ?

[melmerby]

Here's an example where our justice system fails miserably:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-62692610

 

Quote:

Dodds, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, no insurance, drug-driving and driving while disqualified, was also ordered to serve a five-year driving ban when released from prison and pass an extended driving test.

 

Quote:

The 52-year-old, of Infirmary Street, Carlisle, who had already been banned from driving more than 20 times, then fled the car but was later captured.

 

A driver who has already been banned more than 20 times but carries on driving, gets yet another ban? Why?

Just what is wrong with the justice system? He should be physically prevented from driving, at least he got 12 months this time.